Video Production 101: Making a Movie with Kdenlive

With an inexpensive camera and a Linux system, you can be producer, director, editor and even the grip of your next blockbuster.

Notes for Fellow Novices

I'm definitely an amateur in the video domain, but I'm having a lot of
fun learning about it. I've benefited from the advice and suggestions
from many people far more knowledgeable, so in keeping with the spirit
of sharing helpful information, I've assembled the following notes in
the hope that they might benefit other newcomers.

First, take the time to learn about your hardware. You need to
know exactly what to expect from it during and after the shoot. Buy an
extra battery and keep it charged. Buy a good stand and extra tapes.

On the set, set up your shoot carefully and take extra care for camera
position and lighting. Record your audio and video at the highest
quality your camera allows. Record your audio at a strong level, but
avoid clipping. Normalize audio only as a last resort. Bear in mind that
normalization raises the level of the noise floor along with all other
sound in the normalized track.

Be generous when transferring your video from camera to
computer. Approximately 13GB of storage space is required for 60 minutes
of DV-formatted video, but massive storage is cheap these days. Restrict
your edits to simple functions. Avoid fancy transitions and don't get
distracted by effects. Yes, effects are great fun, but unless they truly
add something to the final product they are best left for another project.

Know your target destination (disc, stream, file), and format your
rendering options accordingly. Two passes are better than one, but life
is short. Do what you can with the time you have, then move on.

The Wrap

I felt that I had done my homework, that I had made my choices as wisely
as possible. Nevertheless, I was a newbie at video production, and I
expected surprises. As my work progressed, I was surprised indeed, but
only at how easily the entire process flowed along. My hardware behaved
as expected, Linux provided the necessary low-level support, and the
applications software worked without troubles throughout the process.

Kdenlive was a special pleasure. I had no problems with its interface,
and its tools and utilities were easy to learn and apply. Since my first
project, I've learned more about Kdenlive, and I continue to work with it
as my primary video production software. There's far more to the program
than the few features presented in this article, so if you're interested
in affordable video production with Linux, be sure to check out Kdenlive.

I hope you've enjoyed this little introduction to amateur video production
with Linux. I've had a lot of fun making my own movies with my little
setup, and I hope to improve its capabilities in the future. It may be
some time before I can afford a better camcorder, but in the meanwhile,
I can look forward to new releases of Kdenlive to keep me busy.

Dave Phillips has been using Linux for sound and music since 1995. He is
one of the original founders of the Linux Audio Developers/Users groups and
has been the maintainer of linux-sound.org for more than ten years. He is
the author of The Book Of Linux Music & Sound and
has written many
sound-related articles for various Linux publications. His other activities
include playing in a blues band, reading Latin literature, playing with his
shar-pei Maximus and spending time with his beloved Ivy. You can hear
Dave's music at linux-sound.org/ardour-music.html.

Trending Topics

Webinar: 8 Signs You’re Beyond Cron

Scheduling Crontabs With an Enterprise Scheduler
11am CDT, April 29th

Join Linux Journal and Pat Cameron, Director of Automation Technology at HelpSystems, as they discuss the eight primary advantages of moving beyond cron job scheduling. In this webinar, you’ll learn about integrating cron with an enterprise scheduler.